Escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing gripped global markets with Indian benchmark indices declining over 1 per cent to close at a five-month low and the Nifty ending below 10,000 for the first time since October 2017 on Friday.

"The Nifty closed at its lowest level since October 11, 2017, while the Sensex closed at its lowest since October 23, 2017".

Metal stocks were also down with the Nifty metal index declining over 3 percent to its lowest since September 25, 2017. The equity sell-off reached a feverish pitch amid fear of a trade war between the world's two largest economies as the Trump administration announced plans to impose tariffs on up to $60 bn on annual imports from China. A report by domestic financial major Edelweiss noted that India is relatively insulated in the current trade war between USA and China, but there would be some impact on it since all the emerging markets will be hurt.

The benchmark index tumbled 409.73 points or 1.24% to close at a five-month low of 32,596.54, a level last seen on October 23 past year. Paris CAC 40 was down 1.69 per cent, while Frankfurt's DAX lost 1.81 per cent. London's FTSE shed 0.85 per cent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 2.1 percent as stocks across the region dropped.

For the week, Nifty and Sensex ended lower by 2% each.

"However, the gains were only short lived due to negative trend in European and other Asian market owing to re-emergence of trade war", Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services, said.

Hong Kong and mainland Chinese stocks plunged at open Friday.

The Sensex losers were: Yes Bank, down 3.87 per cent at Rs 286.70; Axis Bank, down 3.34 per cent at Rs 501; State Bank of India, down 2.90 per cent at Rs 234.60; ICICI Bank, down 2.73 per cent at Rs 275.80; and Tata Steel, down 2.40 per cent at Rs 566.60. "We expect domestic chaos to stabilize as pressure of redemption will be over by the end of FY18 but pre-election volatility may take some time".